Fda Plans To Allow Labels Making Food Health Claims

August 18, 1985|By New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration, in a reversal of longstanding policy, plans to allow food manufacturers to include statements about the health benefits of foods and food products on their labels.

The agency's rules now generally prohibit any labeling that makes medical claims.

Also the agency is considering allowing manufacturers to provide more information about the amount of cholesterol in particular foods. Under one proposal, companies would be allowed to label products with terms such as ''low cholesterol'' and ''reduced cholesterol.''

Rules now do not define or permit such terms. According to the agency, ''Studies have repeatedly shown an association between dietary fat and cholesterol and the occurrence of coronary heart disease.''

The food and drug agency said it had concluded that ''manufacturers should be permitted to use the food label to communicate'' information about how proper diet can reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and other ailments.

Officials of the agency said last week that labels making assertions about the health benefits of particular foods would be subject to new guidelines designed to prevent fraud and deception.

''Our problem,'' said Joseph Hile, associate commissioner of food and drugs, ''is how to permit appropriate health claims without opening the door to outright fraudulent ones.''

The statement in which the agency said it would ''revise current regulations that prohibit or discourage the use of certain health messages'' appears in the Regulatory Program of the United States Government, a 600-page compendium of plans and proposals issued this month by the Office of Management and Budget.

The food and drug agency is scheduled to announce the details of its health-labeling proposal next month. A committee of government scientists will then review the available evidence, invite public comment and suggest health labels suitable for use on food product.

Food manufacturers will be allowed to use the recommended language, and the government will consider allowing other messages.

Pressure for the change has built since last October, when the Kellogg Co. began promoting the value of a diet that includes high-fiber foods, such as Kellogg's All-Bran cereal, in reducing the ''risk of some kinds of cancer.'' The message appears on Kellogg's All-Bran cereal box and in television commercials for the product.